Men's football news
A hardworking performance helped Lewes make it two wins from two in pre-season, as goals from a trialist, Jonte Smith and Ronnie Conlon helped the Rooks to a comfortable victory at Southern Combination Premier league side Arundel reports Tom Harper.
Lewes made a bright start and could have been ahead inside the first few minutes, as Bouwe Bosma and a trialist hit the crossbar with efforts from a Jamie Brotherton corner, before Alex Malins saw a close-range header saved as the hosts struggled to clear their lines.
The Rooks did manage to take the lead after just six minutes through the impressive trialist, who collected a through-ball from Conlon and cut inside from the right before sending a superb curling finish past the goalkeeper and into the top corner.
Lewes continued to create the better chances, and saw Brotherton head a Bosma cross over the bar and Smith force a fine save from the Arundel goalkeeper with a low effort from the edge of the area. Arundel grew into the game as the half progressed though, with Nathan Stroomberg called into action to make a smart save from a close-range effort just before the half-hour.
The Rooks doubled their lead minutes later, as good play down the left by the trialist left Smith with the simple task of placing his effort from close range past the goalkeeper and into the back of the net. Lewes came close to increasing their lead further just before half-time, but saw Conlon denied by the goalkeeper and Brotherton send his effort on the rebound just over.
Both sides made several changes at half-time, with Darren Freeman introducing a second trialist up front along with Lloyd Cotton, Ian Robinson and George Landais.
Landais thought he had made it 3-0 within minutes of the restart, but saw his close-range finish after a deflected Brotherton shot fell to him in the six-yard box dubiously ruled out for offside. There were few chances of note for either side for much of the rest of the half, although both teams continued to look to play out from the back and test each other’s defences.
The Rooks were able to score a third goal with the last kick of the game through Conlon, as he latched onto a through-ball from the trialist introduced at half-time and calmly found the bottom corner from just inside the area.
Lewes continue their pre-season campaign at Eastbourne Town on Tuesday, kick-off at 7.45pm.
Lewes: Stroomberg, McCarthy, Hurley, Smith, Malins, Hammond, Conlon, Bosma, Brotherton, MacDevitt, Trialist.
Subs: Cotton, Landais, Robinson, Trialist.